“We’re in the process oftweaking the system andreducing our load, becausethe facility is new,” Chaosaid. “We keep the buildingeffcient in energy use, andgenerate power with a 618-kW solar PV system on therooftop.”Delta also is evaluatingadding 30 percent more solarcapacity through parking lotcar ports, she said.

Mike Gazzano, marketing manager for Delta, said
the company used some of
its own products to support
effcient operations in the
building.

“We installed our ownindustrial automation vari-able frequency drives, orVFD, that help drive themotors and the pumps for thegeothermal system and circu-late the water throughout thebuilding,” he said. “The VFDsThe VFDs also were usedin conjunction with Delta’sactive front end controllablerectifers that provide bidirec-tional power exchange for thebuilding’s elevators.

“They act much like a
hybrid car with regenerative braking,” Gazzano said.
“They harness and pull some
power out of the [elevator]

What’s Next?

Ongoing growth in the coming years for the commercial and
residential geothermal exchange industry in the U.S. is all
about securing federal tax credits now, according to Douglas Dougherty, president and CEO of the Geothermal Exchange
Organization (GEO).

Geothermal exchange installations currently have a 10 percent investment tax credit for commercial applications and
30-percent income tax credit for residential installations
through the end of the year.

Geothermal, along with some other renewable technologies, such as small-scale wind, were left out of the tax credit extensions package passed by the U.S. Congress last December for solar and utility-scale wind resources. Congressional
leadership has since looked for ways to correct that oversight.
Dougherty said that GEO has been advocating for extension of
geothermal tax credits, nearly securing that extension as an
amendment to the Federal Aviation Authorization bill in April.
The amendment, however, ultimately was left out of the aviation bill.

Now, GEO is looking for support for a stand-alone bill to amend
the existing law that grants a fve-year tax credit extension for
solar and wind, and to ensure equal benefts for renewables.

Dougherty said that Congress should not support benefts
for some renewables over others.

“Either they grant the extension to all renewable technologies,
or they take away the extension from solar and wind,” he said.

The pending expiration of those federal tax credits is having a negative effect on the industry, according to Dougherty. He said the GEO is already seeing a reduction in planned
installations.

The GEO also expects the U.S. geothermal exchange industry to beneft from the release earlier this year of a North
American standard for ground-source systems. Independent
standards organization CSA Group released the bi-nation-al 2016 edition of its C448 standard governing the design and
installation of residential and commercial ground-source heat
pumps.

Dougherty said that the standard, which is the frst edition
to be released for the U.S., will help local governments in their
efforts to understand and defne the technology in reference to
their ordinances. à